1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic still camera which is provided with a memory device for storing an image taken with an image pickup device and which can be directly mounted in a card-shaped recording medium slot provided in an external device such as a personal computer and more particularly the present invention relates to an electronic still camera allowing attachment of camera accessories for selectively providing an expansion battery, an expansion memory, a liquid crystal display panel, a flash device and the like.
2. Related Background Art
There is already known an electronic still camera, capable of converting an object image, taken with an image pickup device, into digital signals and storing them in a memory medium such as a flexible disk or a memory card.
In such conventional electronic still camera, the image signals stored in the memory medium are transferred to an external equipment, such as a personal computer ("PC"), by extracting the memory medium, storing the photographed image, from the camera after the phototaking operation, and inserting the stored image into a PC card slot of the personal computer. Image signals may also be transferred by connecting the electronic still camera with the personal computer with a communication interface such as RS-232C.
Such a conventional electronic still camera has therefore been associated with a drawback of requiring cumbersome operations in making connection with the personal computer, such as extracting the memory medium from the camera and inserting it again in the PC card slot of the personal computer, or connecting the electronic still camera and the personal computer with a communication cable.
Particularly, when the electronic still camera is connected to the personal computer with the communication cable, the computer has to be provided therein with an exclusive driver software for the data reception, and an exclusive cable for this purpose has to be prepared. Such increase in the component parts is inconvenient for storage, and the cable connecting operation is rather tedious even for a person who is skilled in handling the electronic equipment.
Also, in the electronic still camera utilizing a PC card as the memory medium, the camera itself becomes bulky because of presence of components required for the electronic still camera, other than the memory and he connector. The camera inevitably becomes expensive because of the various functions provided by such components.
For this reason, it is necessary to construct the electronic still camera as compact, light-weight, thin and inexpensive as possible, and to transfer the signals of the photographed image by mounting the electronic still camera directly in the PC card slot of the external device.
In a configuration of the electronic still camera meeting the above-mentioned requirements, where the component parts constituting the camera are reduced to a minimum, it is desirable to provide other components as accessories for the camera.
Such camera accessories include, for example, a battery pack containing a battery, a memory pack containing a memory device, a flash emission unit of an electronic flash device, usually called a strobe light, a remote control terminal for various remote operations, a view finder device, a lens adapter such as a lens filter, an externally attached conversion lens or a light regulating lens, a modem, and a liquid crystal display unit used for displaying an object field as a view finder, for displaying a recorded image for the purpose of confirmation or reproduction, and for displaying other necessary data such as the status of phototaking conditions, and the remaining capacity of the battery or the memory device.